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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 8/17/2005
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Hi Cheryl,
Not even sure if this will get to you or if you're still around, but new facts have been leaked to the press.
He was not carrying a bag.
He was not wearing a padded jacket, but a simple denim one.
He didn't run into the station, but walked calmly through the gates, using his ticket, stopped to pick up a free newspaper, calmly walked down the escalators. Just like a normal person, going about his honest business.
He did run at the bottom of the escalators, to get into the waiting train (everyone does that!).
Then he sat down. Only then did the police arrive, invade the train, and shout "police". At that moment, probably spooked out of his skin, he stood up, and was tackled by a policeman, who pinned both his arms.
And then he was shot 11 times. Point blank.
8 hit, 7 in the head, 1 in the shoulder.
3 missed.
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Viena teng
{K:30} 8/17/2005
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angelo,
i'm usually good at judging people just by looking at them. anyway, don't want to brag.
by the way, are you sure those people tailing him are british police or are they joint operation with the fbi/cia, the french or anybody. Will we know.
I have another theory. Could he be mixed up with some rich girl(english royalty) and her parents thought that he might just be using her to stay. they decided to waste him. what about two weeks before, he had a brawl with two white men. This could happen.
Let me tell you a story which was featured in Discovery Channel. One rich Indian girl living in Canada fell in love with a poor indian cabbie back in india. They eloped and the girl's mother hired some thugs to waste her own daughter.
there is another incident in my area where a young recently married indian couple who eloped without the girl's parents permission. The guy was wasted after a month. His head and arms were found on the roadside. That girl kept quiet and now back with her parents.
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 8/16/2005
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Hey Viena, let me know when you have uploaded some images. There don't seem to be any in your portfolio.
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 8/16/2005
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Viena,
You wrote:
> He didn't look asian or arab to me.
> How could this face be a terrorist?
I don't know. What do terrorists look like? If he looked Asian or Arab, would that make it "ok"???
If this had been during the IRA bombing campaign, would we be saying "he didn't look Irish"?
My point is: terrorists and serial murderers, they all look like normal people. You can't tell by looking at their faces.
A man shouldn't be shot by the state on suspicion. Full stop. The shade of his skin and hair is irrelevant, and so is the presence/absence of turbans and facial hair.
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Viena teng
{K:30} 8/16/2005
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To: All friends & family of this dude. my deepest sympathy.
Angelo,
I heard somebody said perhaps jean should walk around looking like beckham blonde, lanky and blue eyed. I think everybody would agree that beckham should be walking around looking like this guy. Victoria and the rest of the gang would have agreed.
He didn't look asian or arab to me. how could this face be a terrorist?
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/30/2005
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Thank you, Tom.
Have you read 1984? Mr Orwell got his dates wrong. 2005 IS 1984. The amount of newspeak in usage today is staggering. To the point that the word "war" has lost all its meaning of death and suffering. "War on Terror" sounds so much like something you could never oppose...
Thanks for the sugestion of the smaller apperture. Unfortunately the Ixus does not allow manual override of the aperture. I may repeat this shot with my SLR. Going back to this church won't be difficult, it's righa around the corner. Getting a sunny blue sky in London, on the other hand... :)
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tom rumland
{K:14874} 7/30/2005
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angelo, a certainly fitting image for you about. a sad and terrible story. unfortunately we will probably see it repeated again more often given today's political climate where most people will gladly trade their rights in exchange for the illusion of security. to be frank, the whole thing scares me as i see the slow rise of a global police state. so much for gun control. now we are in a situation where we live in a world where the only guns are/will be in the hands of the government. enough of that tho.
i like this very much. simple. succinct. to the point. excellent use of dead space. my only suggestion would be to shoot this with a larger aperture, say f/22. this would give you a less intrusive halo around the sun and replaces it with a starburst effect. what do you think?
take care,
tom
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Cheryl Ogle
{K:24494} 7/30/2005
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I mourn for the victim, I think that was a terrible incident. There is no way to describe how the family must feel. There are just too many dynamics involved in the case - a scared victim (we think - there's really no way to know why he "ran"), nervous police who see their suspect run - INTO A STATION (where the incidents happened a few days prior) and lack of training for the situation. Remember - the police are human and have families too, think they want to be blown up by someone? Think they want to be responsible for the deaths of others for lack of acting on the suspect that ran into the station and blew it up after they said to "stop"? There is NO winning here - if he had been a terrorist with a bomb and it went off the story would be "suspected terrorist strikes while police watch him". They need better training but it comes AFTER a situation like this unfortunately. Im not saying anyone is right, I'm saying there was no way for this to turn out well given the situation and history they were acting on. I have friends who are police and deal with some very unsavory people - it's not a job I would be able to do.
I love your photo and dedication to the victim, my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. I don't like what happened but I can't pretend that I could do it differently because I wasn't there, I don't know what the police were thinking, I don't know WHY he ran, I don't know any of it other than hypothosis and that just doesn't seem fair to judge anyone on does it?
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/30/2005
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Cheryl,
I'm not sure if you are up to date with all the known facts of this case. He was followed from the estate where he lived, which was under surveilance because they suspected one of the failed bombers lived there. He happened to live in one of the 20 or whatever apartments in the estate. He was followed because he "looked suspicious" (translation: he looked "Asian"). He was followed by PLAINCLOTHES police. They followed him to the bus stop, then into a bus, then out of the bus, and then into the station. There are conflicts in the version. Some say he jumped over the barriers. Some say he didn't. One thing that is pretty consistent is that no witness says that they ever hear them identify themselves as police.
All they shouted was "STOP".
Now I know the area where this took place, and if some thugs run after you and tell you to stop... you don't! He probably ran into the only place where he thought he would be safe: into the station, with all its cameras, and other members of the public who could help him face his assailants.
Then they bundled him to the ground. They HELD him there. Then they pumped eight bullets into him. One on his shoulder. Seven into his head.
His "crime"? Being scared.
How many innocent deaths and how much alientaion is this society willing to accept on the off-chance that a suicide bomber is stopped? Is one innocent death acceptable? Ten? Twenty?
Has a shoot-to-kill policy been proved to work? Where? Even Israel has abandoned/modified it. They now try to catch them.
Sorry, Cheryl, if we are prepared to risk killing the innocent to protect the innocent, then we are living a contradiction.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
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Cheryl Ogle
{K:24494} 7/30/2005
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Don't get me wrong Angelo - I'm not condoning the behavior - I'm simply stating that people who are "running into a station" when asked to stop by police after a rather gruesome bombing occurred days earlier... I mean really - how can you possibly pretend to know what fear was running through the minds of the officers involved? If you had to pick - lives of many or the lives of 1 - what would you do? Especially if you've NEVER been in that situation in your life? That's my point - these men and women risk their life theoretically for you every day - rarely are they faced with the fear of a bombing suspect running into the station...
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/30/2005
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Cheryl,
The price of the right to call this a civilised society is that the state cannot kill someone on mere suspicion (in fact this state does not sanction the killing of a human even when proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt --- yet).
It's the mere existence of a shoot to kill policy which is wrong, whatever the guilt of the officers involved.
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Cheryl Ogle
{K:24494} 7/30/2005
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That was an absolute horrible event. I can't imagine the justification but they were acting under immense pressure after the train bombings and he should've stopped when they told him to - I don't think shooting him 5 times was necessary but again, what happens if he was a bomber and they "just wounded" him and he blew the place up? They should've stopped him prior to the station in my opinion...
I love this shot and tribute. The catch of the light is wonderful off the cross and a great silhouette too. Well done on this.
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Burak Tanriover
{K:16610} 7/27/2005
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excellent composition and silhouettes,
very well seen,
all the best
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/26/2005
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Good point, Alastair.
I don't have a big bone of contention with the policemen. They acted according to their instructions and training. They probably believed that the guy was a terrorist. Unfortunately your skin colour can make you a suspect these days.
My biggest problem with the whole affair is what seems to be a tacit acceptance that there is a need for a "shoot to kill" policy. Very few people (mostly non-white) seem to have a problem with this policy coming in. I have several problems with this policy:
1. When was it debated and passed in Parliament? Who is accountable for this decision? What is the decision-making process in allowing state agents to kill people?
2. If they catch a bomber, prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was a bomber etc, you still can't kill him. You cannot sentence someone to death in a court of law, nor deport a person to a country with the death penalty. Yet it seems you can shoot to kill.
3. You can't even send someone to jail, be it for a day or an hour, on mere suspicion. Yet this man was shot to death on mere suspicion.
4. The shoot to kill policy has been copied from Israel, where it has failed to prevent suicide bombings. So why are we giving in to a policy that alienates and causes resentment without being effective?
I do wonder if the white majority of the British public would feel so comfortable with a shoot to kill policy if it was aimed, say, at the IRA. Because most white British could easily be confused with an Irishman, I have a feeling most would be appalled by the possibility that they could be "mistaken" and shot on suspicion.
In fact, when such a policy was unveiled after an incident in Gibraltar, it was widely condemned.
Have the values of this society changed so quickly and drastically? I urge everyone to be very careful about what they are giving up in terms of rights and freedoms. It will be very hard to recover them.
I also put part of the blame for this at the feet of the bombers. But then I put part of the blame for their bombings on a government that went to war on false pretenses. In sort, I am agreeing with Ken Livingstone.
At least we are still able to debate this. I wonder for how long.
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Alastair Bell
{K:29571} 7/26/2005
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I agree this was a tragedy. But was it the fault of the policemen who were doing what they believed in their hearts was the right thing? Or was it the fault of the terrorists that have created the situation we are now in? We shall probably never know exactly what occured or why and the stories we read in the press will almost certainly not be unbiased factual accounts (after all the press want to sell papers so when is it ever in their interests to present facts in an unbiased way?). Why did Jean run? What was it that scared him so much that it prompted him to take a course of action that ended so tragically. That is a question we will never have the answer for, and yet it is the answer which is fundmental to our understanding of why this happened. We can all speculate on the right or wrong of this. We can all lay blame at the feet of any number of individuals or organisations. None of that will change anything. Jean is dead and that is the tragedy, along with the deaths of so many other innocent individuals who have been killed by terrorism and fanaticism since man first learnt to kill fellow man. If we end the terrorism and fanaticism (an impossible task) we end the tragedy. I don't expect to see this happen in my lifetime. In the meantime I mourn not for Jean, but for those he left behind. I feel their pain and the pain of other families who have lost their loved ones as a result of the fanaticism of a few.
Alastair
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/25/2005
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Guilherme,
O sol é verdadeiro, mas o flare eu adicionei via Filters > Render > Lens flare
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/25/2005
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Thank you for your kind words, Maria.
I was almost brough to tears on the way into work today. I opened the newspaper to see a photo of Jean Charles' parents, teary eyed and holding photos of their beloved son.
The British police were known throughout the world for not carrying guns. Now they have a "shoot to kill" policy and are warning that "more innocents are likely to be killed". How far away this is from their traditional values!
I fear the terror is winning, and at an alarming pace.
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Maria Luisa Vial
{K:36017} 7/25/2005
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Very tragic Angelo... We are living in a very scary world... This is a beautiful tribute to Jean... and a story to open our eyes... We have to stop at some point and begin to think in regaing our values... It is very frightening to live in a world so full of hate...
Great composition Angelo... Love the sky...
Take care...
MaLuisa
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Mark Julian
{K:36866} 7/25/2005
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I'm not gonna say too much cause I've been blocked too many times. I'll let your about and Saeed's comment speak for me. Governments are getting much too powerful and using terrorism as an excuse to control the people even more. The problem is everybody's walking around with their EYES WIDE SHUT !! (it's up to the people) Mark
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/24/2005
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De qualquer forma, Guilerme, essa foto esta aqui mais para marcar o acontecimento do que pelas qualidades técnicas...
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John Nobody
{K:4914} 7/24/2005
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Sério, isso é algo que eu não sei fazer. Você retirou de outra foto ou o Photoshop da esse efeito automático?
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/24/2005
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Hehehe... na verdade eu adicionei o flare no Photoshop :))
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John Nobody
{K:4914} 7/24/2005
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Belo contraste, penso que se tirasse um pouquinho do azul na parte superior ficaria mais fácil a vizualização da foto inteira. Pena que deu um pouquinho de flare no contra luz da cruz.
Guilherme.
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Linda Imagefree
{K:72276} 7/24/2005
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Angelo what a thoughtful tribute. I live in a world of photography these days and had no idea what this was about but thanks to your image, I did some research and OMG...trajic, my heart is broken for this poor man's family...I can't even imagine the devastation that they must feel..my heart goes out to them, and I agree with what's been said here..And bragging about killing another human being regardless of the color of his skin, or where he lives or what he does....is despicable, and an injustice to all humans the world over.....thank you for posting this...:):)Linda
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Saeed Al Shamsi
{K:47735} 7/24/2005
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It is shame where we arrived,, killing innocent people with cold blood. We human created this entire situation guess for what "OIL" which goes to the big heads pocket!!
This summer I?ve changed twice my holiday destination due to a problem raised first in London and now Egypt. I?ve been to almost all over the world and learned that, no problem between normal people at the end of the day we all need to have peace and tranquil life, no matter of different races, religion and country. If we need to stop terrorists, it is the time to see the problem from its root, all started some where!! and spreading all over the world, need not to listen to the war created master but to the public opinion like me you and all those good people all over the world.. to cut this cancer disease "Terrorists" need JUSTICE to all.
God Bless Jean and all innocent people, Amen.
Saeed
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Gayle's Eclectic Photos
{K:91109} 7/24/2005
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Angelo,thanks for sharing your additional thoughts...i,too,am olive skin/dark eyes and hair as is my 26yr old son who is even darker than me...we both want to travel abroad,but i am honestly having 2nd thoughts these days (of course the USA isn't immune by any means)...you must take some precautions,Angelo...perhaps have photo ID like the large press passes that hang from a cord around your neck...
"One conflict ends,only to see another begin.Throughout history,war has been the cancer that spreads mysteriously and incurably through our so-called civilization.The human capacity for inhumanity seems infinite"...quote from photographer/author Jim Hughes
Yes, it is difficult to watch the steady decline...take care,my friend...regards,gayle
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/24/2005
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Chris,
I don't know. Would you even call this "protection"?
Our "leaders" sold us a war on a lie of WMDs that did not exist, and on the protection of "fighting the terrorists over there, so we don't have to fight them over here".
Whatever else may be said about the Iraq war, it is not that it has prevented terrorism reaching our streets.
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/24/2005
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Gayle,
It's hard to know what is "true" these days. Depends who you take your "truth" from. Here are some further thoughts I've been having on this issue:
. Jean would not have been chased and killed if he was blonde and blue eyed
. Every day innocent people are being blown up and killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Palestine. There is never even a 1 minute silence in their honour, even though a report has shown that at least 33% of the innocents killed in Iraq are victims of the occupying forces
. I am a Brazilian living in London. I have blue eyes, but my hair is dark, my skin is not so light and I have chosen to keep a long beard (longer than my fist is wide). When I go to work I carry a rucksack. I take my camera and take pictures in the train (candids, trailing light shots, you can see them in my portfolio!) Now I am afraid not only of a bomb, but of the police, too.
My biggest problem is taht the cycle of violence is getting faster and faster and there is a total lack of courage, intelligence and leadership from our leaders towards stopping it.
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Angelo Villaschi
{K:49617} 7/24/2005
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Hugh,
The most disturbing thing I found was listening to some of the comments by (white) British people at work on Friday. They were fairly happy their heroic police had shot a terrorist dead. They had no problems with that.
There was no proof of his guilt, but after all it was an "asiatic-looking" man with dark skin running into a train... so shoot to kill.
If that is the stage we are at, taking advice on how to act from Israeli police, from General Musharraf, and shooting people in the head based on suspicion and the colour of their skin, then terror is winning, big time.
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Gayle's Eclectic Photos
{K:91109} 7/24/2005
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Thanks for providing this tribute to Mr.de Menezes...the only "truth" in this tragedy is that an innocent human being is dead.They should go into his family's house and ask them how they feel. All the rest are only words...best regards,gayle
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Hugh Hill
{K:1618} 7/24/2005
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Angelo it was disgusting waht happened to Jean.
What was he supposed to think? 5 men looking like right wing facists thugs start chasing him shouting at him - no wonder the poor soul ran.
gut when he managed to make it onto the train they persued him pushing him onto the floor one holding him while another shot him 5 times (I am told all in the head and upper body.)
They had him on the floor he was in their custody why did they shoot him, why did they kill that poor man in cold blood?
I was just down the road at Vauxhall when all this happened I used to live opposite the WMCA it just seems so cruel and this area has a large Portugese and South American Community who have always been passive and very friendly.
Cold blooded murder thats what that was and nothing less!
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Mary Brown
{K:71879} 7/24/2005
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Fear and paranoia are dreadful things and lead to impulsive actions. To take away someone's freedom, and life, in the name of preserving freedom is ironic and tragic.
Mary
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Marilyn Nagy
{K:6008} 7/23/2005
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Angelo, Nice tribute. Sorry this happened. Marilyn
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Roberto Bertone
{K:13239} 7/23/2005
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Ottima cattura e composizione Angelo!!
Saluti.
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Kevin Collier
{K:19076} 7/23/2005
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...:(...this world is too crazy, too paranoid and too controled by those who would keep us in fear - both in and out of the government - me, personally, I do not feel safer due to the governments of the world's "war" on terrorism...I feel that they have taken bits and pieces of "my" freedom in the name of keeping me safe. They have done nothing for me except make me feel less safe and secure than I was before..."1984" is right here, right now...perhaps they are barking up the wrong tree or perhaps they want to take my freedom and that of Jean Charles de Menezes, who paid the ulimate price!!...I remember the days of .... Peace...where have they gone?...K
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Chris Hunter
{K:25634} 7/23/2005
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A very tragic situation...at what cost does protection come???
A simple composition that works well.
Chris
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